Monday Morning Star Count, November 30, 2015

I have not even sewn one stitch this week.  I did manage to find my cutting table and mat, and it was nice to see them after what seemed like too long, but I didn't cut anything.  I didn't press anything.  I didn't do much other than ponder how I will organize my new space.

If you have stitched though, please tell us!
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Monday Morning Star Count, November 23, 2015

Hey, how about a little EPP?
I've been meaning to make a MMSC picture that I can post even when life doesn't let me sew, and I finally got around to it.  What do you think?

Here's the linky.  Please share your EPP progress!
Everyone is welcome to join, even basting one hexie counts!
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Monday Morning Star Count, October 19, 2015

I emptied my pentagon travel case and returned the special notions to their usual spots in the sewing room this week.  I've decided to work a bit on Travel Quilt #5 in preparation for my upcoming EPP Lecture in Williston Park this Wednesday.  I'd like to have something big to show off.

Not much progress to show, but I'm prepped for when free time appears.

What have you been working on?  If you have several EPP projects going at once, how do you keep them separate and do you pack different notions in each case or do you switch them out?  I'd love to hear how it works for you guys.

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Monday Morning Start Count, October 12, 2013

This is where I'm at with the pentagon runner.  My day for the Halloween Blog Hop is Friday, so please come back and see how much it changes before then.

Monday Morning Star Count, October 5, 2015

Post and pics coming soon.  I have lots to say, but first, the linky:

Monday Morning Star Count, September 21, 2015

More pentagons this week.  I need to get a picture (and write a real post) but I thought I'd toss up the linky anyway.  Where's your progress!!

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Monday Morning Star Count, September 14, 2015

Happy Monday, All~

Have you been stitching?  My pentagons are increasing slowly, I've got 4 rings and I'm pondering layout..

I need some greens I think,  and more orange.  Do you like the lighter or more saturated rings?  My gut tells me to make more and then see how to balance them (but life seems to give me that sort of advice about a lot of things..) Which brings me to a nice transition--- Life has tossed me some rather large stepping stones in the past few months and even when I have nothing to do, I've got a lot to think about.  I try not to let these thoughts encroach on my quilting time (in fact, my super wonderful therapist suggests that I keep quilting to stay centered..) but they do get in the way of blogging.  It's so much easier to toss progress pics up on instagram than to sort through my feelings and ideas and pull something eloquent together to say in a blog post about a couple hours of sewing.  Sometimes there just are no words, you know?  Thank you, the few of you who have reached out to check up on me in the weeks I've missed Star Count.  It really means a lot to know I've got this nice community of close friends, acquaintances, and dedicated quilters who notice when I'm not there.  I am here, and I will be ok.  Well, actually I'm better than ok, most days, all considering.  But somehow it seems it's always Sunday into Monday that finds me weepy or struggling a bit, and that's making it hard for me to want to cloud the Internet with more tough feelings.  Especially my blog, which is supposed to be the highlight reel of life, no?  I swear, so much of what I struggle with is how honest I can be, what I ought to say, to feel I'm staying true to myself yet also maintaining a "public" persona of super mom/wonder quilter.  Guys, you know that's not true, right? 
I would like to write here from a place more authentic, especially since I'm making and sharing quilts,  which are basically soft scrapbooks,  a window to my soul and a colorful account of where I've been, all I've seen and done.  Even without words, a knowing eye will see where I'm at, and for those with less access to the backstories, my quilts certainly provide lots to ponder if you're curious.  
I want to tell the stories of my quilts on this blog, but right now I'm struggling with how much to say, what to reveal, and some days I just can't fake happiness when life isn't giving me much.  There are many small wonderful moments though,  and I'm still sorting out which of those I want to keep private and which I can share.  It's getting easier to see the difference and I appreciate those of you who stick around to read whatever shows up in this space.  You give me lots of encouragement to keep sewing, to keep thinking and make me wonder if maybe this can be a safe place to unload and work through my thoughts...  I really appreciate that.

So, here's the link up.   What have you been stitching?  And if you want to share, what have those stitches helped you get through this week?  Xoxoxox

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Monday Morning Star Count, August 24, 2015

This weekend I spent time cutting patches for a new project-- Pentagons.
I'm working on something for the All Points Patchwork Halloween blog hop.  It's turning out super cute so far, I'm really excited.

 

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Monday Morning Star Count, August 17, 2015

Sometimes life gets a little... life-y.
And all you can do is move forward.  Do what needs to be done.  You cling to the things that you know because there is so much all of the sudden that you don't know.
Last week I got a message from a very dear quilting friend that she was in the hospital.  Cancer.
It was my first time ever getting that call directly.  I was unprepared for my emotional reaction.  There was shock, and a need to be present for her.  So I did what I knew how to do-- I picked up my sewing kit and drove to the hospital..

She'll be in for a while.  Some infections delayed the chemo treatment but finally things got underway and seem to be doing well in the initial stages.  I can't say too much here, to protect her privacy, though she did say I can blog about our hospital room sit and sew sessions.  She even took a pic of me for this blog post..

I'm just plugging away at Travel Quilt #5.  I joined the sections that were left flapping and started  in on more small sashing strips so I can get another chunk of diamonds together.  I'm off to the hospital again tonight for a visit so if the lighting is good, we'll piece some more.  Piece calm.  Piece quiet.  Enjoy each other's company.

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Monday Morning Star Count, August 10, 2015

One lonely side filler piece.

That's all I managed last week.  Sometimes projects speed forward at a quick step, other times they inch along, one inch hexie at a time.

I like this little side unit.  I cut 3 castle towers from a scrap of Lizzy House, left over from the back of TQ#2.  The yellow was a scrap I salvaged from a bin at my workshop with Sarah Fielke in Sisters (now there's a blog post I should write..).  Small but powerful, this unit.  Good memories in there.

What have you done?
(I also made, um, and entire quilt top in a weekend, just about.  Watch for that post later today)
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Monday Morning Star Count, August 3, 2015

Ooh, I didn't schedule this post ahead of time and now it's Monday afternoon.  No worries though, I have done MORE than enough piecing this week to make up for it.
Just look at these...

These are all the hexies I have freed by joining more units and more sashing strips.  BTW, next time I say, "Oh, I'll just add sashing to my EPP project" someone shake some sense into me.  The progress here is sooo deceiving.  The units get done, but the assembly just takes forever.  I am absolutely loving the look though.

In other news, today is the last day of my summer break and tomorrow I'll head back to work and my sanity saving routine of 10 minutes of EPP per day (not the 2+ hours I must have put in every day the last week).  Small progress, big smiles.
What have you accomplished since last post?

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Monday Morning Star Count, July 27, 2015

Travel Quilt #5 got a lot of attention this week..
I've been home with the kids for the last bit of my summer break so I stitched at the library, in the yard as Jack played play-doh, on the couch with George as he played games on my tablet... (my phone was never around to take action shots though)
And by the weekend, I was ready to stitch two large sections together.

I made enough sashing strips to go along a diagonal row of hex-diamonds so I attached that to the smaller section first before joining the row to the bottom segment of the quilt top.  I didn't want the weight of the sections to pull too much as I was stitching so I lined up my hexies and joined the segments from the middle, working my way to either end.

I have laid out the remainder of the top row a hundred times but never get around to piecing it to the strip.. I decided this weekend just to join what I had so I could free up templates and not worry so much about color placement decisions (what comes after the brown hex-diamond has changed several times.. most recently I want to use a purple unit which isn't actually pieced yet...)

 I like how it looks so far.  I have a stack of completed hex-diamond units (sorry, didn't count them before the post) but they all seem to have a very similarly toned outer ring.. I think this bottom corner is so colorful, and then the rest are going to be low volume/white prints?  Yes, I'm getting frustrated with this a little.  I want to make progress but it's slow.  The units are easy enough to get done, but the sashing and assembly keeps tripping me up.  Didn't trip Jack though, he had a great time spinning around on it during my photo shoot.

I'm sure there will be much more time for EPP this week.  What were you able to get done since last time?  Show us!!

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Monday Morning Star Count, July 20, 2015

I had such and amazing time at the Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show last weekend...  It was super cool to finally be there and to see my quilts on display all over town.

Travel Quilts #2 and #3 were hanging and they looked so... intricate from across the street or down the block.  I guess I forget that I stitched them from 1.5" diamonds?  

I had 3 other quilts in the show too, maybe I'll post about them later, I want to keep the focus on EPP today.  Of course I found some time to work on Travel Quilt #6 that weekend:

and got in a bit of stitching on TQ#5 during the car ride too:

I'm back home in NY now, but omg, I am SO in love with Oregon.  The quilt shops, people!  The quilt shops alone are reason enough to buy plane tix and rearrange your schedules to get out there.  And I didn't even make it to that many (4 maybe?).  It was enough, though.  I came home with an extra suitcase (I had to carry the 5 quilts...) and probably around 20 yards of fabric.  Quilting heaven, I'm telling ya...

I have cut up a bunch of new fabric for hex-diamonds and I hope to get some stitching done throughout the rest of the summer.  I'm also working on some big machine pieced projects though, so I've got to balance my time.  Yesterday it was just plain too hot to quilt.. maybe this week I can convince the kids to hang out at the public library for a while (or anywhere else with free air conditioning?).

Now it's your turn.  Who has been making progress on their EPP this week?
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Monday Morning Star Count, July 13, 2015

One last apple core post and then I'll go back to other shapes (I've got pentagons, triangles, half hexies and hexies in my bag as I type this..)

I really got into apple cores while I was preparing for the blog hop over the last 2 weeks, I totally took enough photos for 3 blog posts and couldn't fit them all into my hop post, so today I want to show you guys the ultra-cool acrylic (fussy) cutting template I got from paperpieces.com

 First you take off the brown paper backing and then use the inner lines to center your fussy cut.

(can't get this pic to load right side up, sorry fox and bunny!)

 I used a 28mm rotary cutter to slice the outside curves around the acrylic template.  Then I took a pencil and traced around the inner curves, which I cut out by hand with my fabric scissors.  I tried to cut the inner curves with the blade, but on the 3" apple core template it was too tight.

For the drawstring bag in my last post, I only fussy cut one print (I wanted to focus on these little Timeless Treasures bunnies), but these acrylic templates come in most sizes for the EPP shapes that paperpieces.com offer.  (I have the pentagon and hexagon ones already)  Whatever your project, this little tool is going to be useful.

I'm scheduling this post ahead of time in case I don't have good wifi in central Oregon.  If I get a chance to update with my EPP progress from the weekend, I will.  If not, I sure hope you guys will link something up this week~

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Monday Morning Star Count, July 6, 2015

I'm getting a little better with these guys, slowly but surely.

I've got basting down and I've started piecing them together.  Once you get into a rhythm it's fun, but not mindless yet.  I think I have been clipping my inner curves too deep..
I pieced almost all of these units together and I want to make it three times the size.  I basted a few more this weekend, but didn't grab a full count.  less than 20, I think.

I've got a new sewing partner too-- I'm visiting friends in Oregon for a few weeks (headed to Sisters on Friday!!!) and their oldest daughter has wanted to play with fabric and sew with me almost immediately since I arrived.  No complaints from me there!  She even made a block for Travel Quilt #6..

Tomorrow I'm taking her fabric shopping.  Can't wait to see her tastes in fabric.

Today starts the Apple-a-Day Blog Hop for All Points Patchwork.  My hop day is Friday, but follow this link to see what everyone else is making~

Apple-a-Day Hop

And be sure to link up your own EPP progress below!

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Monday Morning Star Count, June 29th

Ok, ok, ok.  You know how sometimes you think you don't like something, but then you see your friend trying it so you get curious?

I feel.. intrigued.  Scared.  but very curious..
Next week Diane is having the next phase of her All Points Patchwork blog hop, theme:
Apple Cores.

So I volunteered to participate.  I'm nuts, right?  I am not scared of sewing curves (by hand or machine), and I can EPP in my sleep, but what has me intimidated and at the same time, motivated, is the need to thread baste through the papers.  Sure, I could finally try glue basting too, but I want to give traditional thread basting a try.   If I end up with a glue stick by the end of next week, you'll hear all about it.

So I ordered templates from paperpieces.com and I got this really cool acrylic template (I'll explain more in my blog hop post on the 10th).  I cut up some fabric and gave it a shot..

What surprised me at first was that it takes a long time to do this... I think I've just got so much experience with diamonds and hexagons (and cutting the patches with a ruler and rotary cutter) that having to slow down and cut out no more than two patches at a time just felt like it was taking forever.  My initial attempts at basting went pretty slowly too.  I think it took me about 35-40 minutes to baste these 4 templates while chatting with a friend.  I know things will speed up the more I do, but for now.. hmm.  it's not as bad as I feared.  The thread basting is calm and soothing, quite enjoyable, so long as you're not in a rush.  My blog hop project idea calls for maybe 40-50 apple cores so I've got a ways to go yet.  I'll let you know how it goes..

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Monday Morning Star Count, June 22nd

I sewed all weekend!  but only a tiny bit of it was EPP.  I hung out with Christa one evening and basted a lot, but my only piecing was getting these two together.

I thought a lot about EPP though and put in an order at http://www.paperpieces.com/ for some new-to-me shapes and some fussy cutting templates.  When they arrive I'll share more pics and info about my summer stitching plans...

For now, it's your turn.  Please show off more progress than I did, and if you can't, give us a good reason!  I have  no guilt or shame, I finished quilting the taupe spiderweb borders, made and attached binding and started stitching it down.  I also pieced my Sunshine and Shadows from the 2015 New Years scrappylogcabin quilt along (check out my instagram feed for lots and lots of pics).  I added in some crumb piecing and hand print blocks, it came out really scrappy and wonderful.  It's a riot of color.  More pics when it's quilted (or basted, or half quilted.. again, it's easier to post to IG as I'm sewing than to stop and write a full blog post.).

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Monday Morning Star Count, June 15th

I spent so much time on the Spider Web this past week that I haven't even touched Travel Quilt #5.  While tearing apart the sewing room for appropriate binding fabric though, I finally found my 1.5" pentagon templates which I'm going to use for my project in Diane Gilleland's All Points Patchwork blog hop, the Halloween portion.

Yes, I've got months, but I still can't find my Halloween prints and I want to get working on it soon.  The project concept is solid, but the actual design and fabric placement is still up in the air so I want to make some units and get my ideas in order, you know?

I was so happy to see such a nice response to my MMSC link up revival.  You guys are awesome, and some of you have been sewing up a storm!  If you haven't seen everyone's links from last week, scroll down to the post.  If you've got some progress to show (even if it's just finding a pack of templates!), tell us about it and how it makes you feel.  Can't wait to see who joins up this week~

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Monday Morning Star Count Revival

I keep doing EPP.
I try to stop.
I even got a job and a bunch of other time consuming responsibilities to help break the habit, but...

I can't.

So I'm reviving the Star Count.  Once a month didn't work for me.  I need you guys every week. Like Amanda Jean posted on Friday, the accountability that the link up provides is really strong (and comforting in some ways too)

I've started basting and piecing everyday as part of a meditation practice.  It's really amazing how much clearer my mind gets after just 10 minutes of silent EPP.

Of course if you only sew for 10 minutes a day, progress is slow, but it adds up.  I've been making my way through a few hexi-diamonds and a lot of black sashing strips.

Is anybody out there to play along?  I miss you guys!

Here's the Linky!!

Monday Morning Star Count, April 2015

Hi guys.  Anybody here?  Want to post links to your English paper piecing progress?
Here you go:



I have been cutting and plotting away on Travel Quilt #5, and keeping it with me to stitch in all sorts of stolen minutes the past month.  The best was the afternoon I spent piecing with Eri at Panera.. 3 blissful hours of conversation and EPP.

(doh, can't get this one to load horizontally!)

I hope you all were so lucky~